Nearly every story coming out of Gaza in the last seven months has been tragic, but one of the most heartbreaking is the Flour Massacre, the name given to the February 29 incident that left 118 Palestinians dead and 760 injured at the hands of Israeli soldiers as they clamored to receive a delivery of food aid on al-Rashid Street in Gaza City.
It is one of the deadliest mass casualty events Gaza has seen since the war broke out following Hamas’s October 7 terror attack on Israel. There have been conflicting reports of the events, with Gazan health authorities blaming the IDF and the Israeli military saying most people died in a stampede and that they only opened fire in self-defense as Palestinians approached their tanks at a checkpoint.
However, an analysis by CNN shows that Israel is not as innocent as they claim. In fact, after viewing dozens of videos from the event and testimony provided by eyewitnesses as well as forensic and ballistic experts, they have concluded that the timeline of the events provided by Israel is false.
The timeline was released by the IDF on March 8 following an internal investigation. They reported that their tanks escorted an aid convoy into northern Gaza at 4:29am, and they fired “warning shots” to the east to help break up the crowds before firing at people they believed were posing a threat. They then fired more warning shots at 4:45am.
CNN, however, has determined that the automatic gunfire actually started before the IDF claims the convoy went through the checkpoint. They also concluded that shots were fired in close range of the throngs of starving Palestinians who were convening in hopes of receiving sacks of flour at the Al-Nabulsi Roundabout.
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One witness at the scene confirmed that the "chaos and confusion that led to people being hit by the trucks only started once Israeli soldiers began shooting."
They added: "Most of the people killed were rammed by the aid trucks during the chaos and while trying to escape the Israeli gunfire."
Hamouda Zamil, another survivor, told the outlet that soldiers shot him after he was given a bag of flour from a truck. He recounted: "As soon as I carried the bag of flour and started to walk, they [the IDF] shot at me."
Ismail al-Ghoul of Al Jazeera, who was present at the scene, reported two bursts of firing, one as hungry Palestinians took the goods and another when the crowd went back to the trucks.
He said: “After opening fire, Israeli tanks advanced and ran over many of the dead and injured bodies.”
Although Israel insists many of those who died that day were killed in the stampede for food, accounts from witnesses indicate IDF forces fired into the crowd indiscriminately, killing people and spurring a stampede that resulted in even more deaths.
Multiple deadly incidents have taken place at food aid deliveries in Gaza
Sadly, this wasn’t the first incident of its type to take place at an aid delivery location. Between January 25 and March 21, the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented more than 26 attacks on civilians at the same roundabout and the al-Kuwaiti roundabout while waiting for supplies and aid. Just three days before the Flour Massacre, video footage taken by eyewitnesses shows IDF soldiers firing heavy tank fire on civilians who were awaiting a delivery of aid near the same checkpoint.
Some of the Palestinians who survived the incident have said that even though they worried the large crowd would be a good target for Israeli soldiers to fire upon, their families were dying of starvation anyway and they felt they had nothing to lose.
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